Former Sen. George gets law license reinstated

He wins appeal despite agency opposition

Former longtime state senator Gary George has won back his license to practice law, a privilege he lost in 2004 when he was convicted and imprisoned for a kickback fraud scheme involving a nonprofit agency.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday granted George's request for reinstatement, dismissing the recommendation of the Office of Lawyer Regulation, which twice sought revocation based on George's federal conviction.

A referee who heard George's case also had recommended he be disbarred, in part because he thought George may have worked as a lawyer during his suspension, hasn't done enough to pay off his debts and continues to believe he was wrongly charged in the federal case.

"We are reluctant to hold that an individual must explicitly admit wrongdoing to be reinstated," the court wrote. Justice David T. Prosser did not participate in the decision, which was attributed to the rest of the court as a whole.

"I appreciate the court made a judgment call in my favor," George said in a statement issued by his attorney, Mark Hazelbaker of Madison. He said he has a "new sense of the power of the legal system and a dedication to help people deal with it."

In addition to other concerns, referee James Winiarski concluded George, 56, had not shown proper understanding and attitude toward the standards imposed on lawyers, or that he would conform to those standards, and so couldn't be "safely recommended" to the courts and public to act in matters of trust and confidence.

The Supreme Court agreed that some of George's past conduct was "deeply flawed," that he wasn't fully open about his professional work while suspended and maintains he was wrongly convicted.

George "appears to operate under the misapprehension that he is somehow entitled to reinstatement upon the expiration of his license suspension," the court wrote. Nevertheless, the court concluded, George showed by "clear, satisfactory and convincing evidence" that his license should be reinstated, citing testimony of seven witnesses who testified at the discipline hearing about his honesty and trustworthiness.

Scheme exposed

George was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1979. He served 23 years in the state Senate as a Democrat representing District 6 in Milwaukee County. He was voted out in a 2003 recall election after opposing the expansion of gambling at Potawatomi Bingo Casino.

About a month later, he was indicted.

In a plea agreement, George admitted to participating in a kickback scheme with attorney Mark Sostarich, who gave George 80% of his monthly retainer and 50% of additional legal fees from the now-defunct Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee Inc. Prosecutors dismissed a similar charge involving legal fees from the Police Athletic League and a charge that George stole federal money by rigging bids for the construction of the league's $6.5 million building.

The OLR first sought to have George disbarred in 2005. In March 2008, the court instead suspended him for four years, retroactive to the automatic suspension. In June 2008, George petitioned for reinstatement, and another full hearing was held late that year. In February 2009, the referee recommended denial, George appealed and the matter had been pending before the Supreme Court until Thursday.

George served about three years in prison before being released on probation. He completed his federal supervision in August. According to court records, he was earning about $8,000 a month working as a consultant for Pennebaker Enterprises, a commercial roofing company, and R.J. Harris and Associates, a marketing company. Professional rules allow a suspended lawyer to do law-related work for a commercial firm whose primary focus is not law, even two such businesses, the court ruled.

Both sides in his discipline case agreed that with a law license, George was likely to earn more income.

As part of his federal sentence, George was ordered to pay $568,596.48 in restitution, but he challenged the amount, which was later reduced to $327,278.48. As of April, he still owed $191,000, along with costs of his two lawyer discipline actions, including $9,700 from the reinstatement proceedings.